PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

I SUNDAY OF ADVENT - Mt 24:37-44

The Lord is coming! His advent - arrival - is at hand. From the beginning of the Church, all Christians look forward to his coming. And we must prepare to welcome him. We may miss his arrival and ignore him. I remember a sketch repeated many times by the youths in Lubengele Parish: Someone was told that God would visit him. And he decided to give God a great welcome: he cleaned the house and embellished it with the best he had for the greatest and most noble guest that he could receive. As he was waiting, a poor old man with his clothes in tatters knocked at the door. However, he had no time for him and threw him out with insults. He was waiting for God and had no time to be concerned with anything else. Next, a drunkard came looking for a place where to sit and recover from the hangover. He pleaded insistently, but to no avail. He could not stand such a nuisance. His heart and his mind were concentrated on God who was coming. A while later, a young man who had become a human wreck due to drug abuse knocked at the door. From inside, the owner shouted angrily at him. What a shame! Nobody could go inside and dirty the house that he prepared for God. He waited and waited for God, who seemed to be late, and he was getting tired of so much waiting. In the end, he complained. God did not keep his word. How can he be trusted? However, God could not understand his complaint. He had come, more than once, but he was never allowed in. He was the poor old man, the drunkard and the drug user. He pleaded to come in, only to be thrown out. 

The Lord will come at the end of time… And he is coming time and again. However, we are distracted by so many things that we don’t pay attention to him. Jesus warns us: “‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.” And he repeats his warning: ”Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Saint Paul also reminds us that “the time has come”: “Let us live decently as people do in the daytime: no drunken orgies, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy. Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ro 13:11-14)